• Destiel, Social Media, and Queerbaiting
supernatural destiel I'm No Angel spn meta I'll get off my soapbox now supernatural meta swl meta chad kennedy not tagging fandom wank that implies this isn't important and it is I hate that tag really do superwholockthecomic
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supernatural destiel I'm No Angel spn meta I'll get off my soapbox now supernatural meta swl meta chad kennedy not tagging fandom wank that implies this isn't important and it is I hate that tag really do

Destiel, Social Media, and Queerbaiting

I’m sure most of you have heard a little bit about the insanity that happened after Supernatural ep 9.03 aired, but it seems to me that a lot of people only have bits and pieces. So here’s a summary, from everything I’ve gathered.

1. Several regularly livetweeting writers clear off twitter before the episode and direct questions to Chad Kennedy, an executive producer.

3. Kennedy tweets that the show’s vision for Dean and Cas is not bisexual.

4. The fandom flips out. Kennedy backtracks hastily, tweeting support for bi characters in media but also saying that Destiel has never been pitched to him (also that if it was he would support it).

5. The fandom flips out more. Though the tone of this flipping out, it’s important to note, was mostly rational if upset.

6. Kennedy deletes his twitter.

7. Guy Norman Bee tweets that he doesn’t understand why people get so upset when a storyline that doesn’t exist doesn’t exist. He backtracks hastily, tweeting that he’s a guest director and has nothing to do with the writing. Shoots down attempts at discussion with repeated tweets of “please don’t include me in this.”

8. Osric Chau writes a very sweet message about the importance of positivity after the episode, but proceeds to joke about how funny Dean’s reaction would be if Cas were bi.

9. Adam Glass returns to twitter and basically continues to insist that the episode is up for interpretation.

So there’s what happened. You can find the Chad Kennedy tweets at Fandom Debunker and a full breakdown of what happened with embedded tweets at The Daily Dot.

Now here’s why it’s incredibly valid for the fandom to be upset, and why the production team needs to get their crap together.

Let me remind you season 8.

The season that sent this dedicated non-shipper into a spiral of uncertainty and doubt. Because let’s recap, shall we?

Every other storyline being about cross species relationships, often in which one member was subjugated by an outside force, and multiple references to angel/human love.

Multiple cliffhangers hinged on Cas and Dean’s relationship.

Honestly I’m not going into it more than that. I didn’t even want to see it and it was freaking inescapable.

9.03: The episode that sank the ship?

Hardly. Cas can have sex with someone who’s not Dean and enjoy it. Potential consent issues aside, Dean can be proud of him for it. He took Cas to a brothel, for crying out loud. He’s not a jealous lover. And I also maintain that if he is canonically in love with Cas, he hasn’t realized it yet. I don’t see this as a no homo moment. Honestly anything else would have felt OOC to me. So in so far as the ep itself is concerned, I do think people overreacted. But they didn’t overreact to the reaction to their overreaction.

Hello, Queerbaiting. Nice to see you again.

Queerbaiting in a most basic definition is having characters who could be easily interpreted as subtextually queer, taking every opportunity to make their relationship seem almost queer, and then deny them any kind of textual relationship for no other reason than it’s queerness. Again, very basic. Go here for a longer definition.

It’s a very real problem because Supernatural has a massive queer audience that’s starved for representation in media. A lot of people hang their hopes on Dean coming out, and/or Dean and Cas getting together. Because they VERY UNDERSTANDABLY see each other in their characters.

The problem is, the production team is playing into this in damaging ways. Here’s an excerpt from a great article on SpoilerTV:

As Misha confirmed, the writers are perfectly aware how their relationship comes across and denying any responsibility on their part and fans simply accusing other fans of seeing something that is not there will always be untrue. Queer-baiting is not your fault. A response to these scenes only exists, because the people involved in the show include ambiguity. This is why the script puts in specific lines, or why the camera zooms in on their faces, or why the extra-diegetic music used for their scenes underlines romantic interpretations. It’s a combination of all these factors, which makes people see certain things.

Queer-baiting is not your fault.

I repeat.

QUEER-BAITING IS NOT YOUR FAULT.

On numerous occasions, the production team has acknowledged that they incorporate Destiel-related tension in their decision-making process. It’s not a few fans projecting their ship. It’s a few fans reacting with tenuous hope when they see the show make conscious steps in that direction, and then reacting with anger when they make belittling comments or act like it’s all in their heads.

Now the biggest, the biggest part of all of this, for me, is that Kennedy and Bee both did what writers and actors have been refusing to do: Confirmed that Dean and Cas are not and will not be canonically bisexual.

It’s important to take this with a grain of salt, because neither of them are writers, and neither of them are that tapped into the fan base.

But when execs, for a whole season, refuse to confirm or deny a relationship because that would be spoilers, you can’t blame people for inferring that there’s something to spoil. These repeated dodges got people’s hopes up. Because if they weren’t going to do it, why not just come out and say it if people are so invested?

(Hint: You can keep the tension going and your massive queer and queer-friendly audience hooked as long as they have no idea you’re not going to do what you subtextually promised to do…see the problem here?)

Whether or not they’re planning to go through with Destiel, they need to get their crap together. They are professionals. Many probably have social media training. Many have made themselves the faces and voices of the production team. And yet when confronted by reasonably concerned fans, they give inconsistent answers, dodge accountability, avoid serious debates, tell us to “wait and see,” and belittle and intentionally misunderstand valid concerns.

There’s also the “it’s up for interpretation” copout, which is absurd because why is April/Cas and Meg/Cas and Dean/Anna and Dean/random Amazon textual but four seasons of Dean and Cas is “up for interpretation?” (hint: because heterosexism.)

I LOVE that so many people on the SPN team are interactive, I do, but if they’re going to keep poking this emotional grizzly bear they need to figure out better ways to do it. And that’s REALLY not hard. The Hannibal team responded to a fan’s question about Hannigram by responding that their relationship wouldn’t be sexual, but they wouldn’t take that away from the fans. Bryan Fuller then went on a tangent about how there are many kinds of valid love and not all of them have to be sexual. AND THE INTERNET WAS FINE. THEY HAD AN HONEST ANSWER. PEACE REIGNED IN THE HANNIBAL FANDOM.

Don’t read this and go and attack the production team. That will accomplish nothing. But don’t be mad at the fandom this time. Don’t apologize for the fandom. What happened, for the most part, was not cyberbullying. It was a fandom desperately trying to understand why they’d been led on (or even IF they’d been led on) and having their questions shot down and dismissed. They have every right to be upset.

The good thing to take away from this.

It’s amazing that this is even something we can talk about. Keep in mind that the first gay character on TV appeared in 1971, the first major gay characters a decade later. Both Well within the lifetimes of some of us or our parents. It is a HUGE DEAL that we can talk about gay representation on TV. It’s a HUGE DEAL that the SPN team would look worse for being homophobic than for being inclusive. In fact, it’s pretty freaking AWESOME. We shouldn’t settle for that of course, but it’s still important to put that into perspective.

And even if there are no plans to make Destiel happen now (which I still kind of doubt), remember that Cas was supposed to die in Season 4. We do have a production team that listens to us, so make your voices heard in reasonable and calm ways, even if you’re hurting. Things can always change, especially in a show about tearing up the script and throwing away the pages.

Additional reading (if you’re not exhausted):

Andythanfiction still thinks Destiel is happening, if you want to feel better.

SpoilerTV has an in depth, INCREDIBLE article on Destiel and queerbaiting that addresses these points better than I ever will.

I’m sure most of you have heard a little bit about the insanity that happened after Supernatural ep 9.03 aired, but it seems to me that a lot of people only have bits and pieces. So here’s a summary, from everything I’ve gathered.
1. Several regularly livetweeting writers clear off...

fuck man it’s way too late for meta but i’m gonna do it really quickly. i really wasn’t optimistic on the deancas for this season until tonight’s episodes and i’m gonna give you three brief reasons why:
first off is the clear echo and foreshadowing of dean’s conve...

I just realised the absolute worst thing.
During the “Talk to me” scene in Hunteri Heroici, Cas tells Dean that if he returns to heaven, he might kill himself.
In Torn and Frayed, Cas returns to heaven.
Cas is no longer answering prayers.
This means that Dean is afraid that Cas might hav...

Look, here’s the thing.
Yeah, we got that something happened between Meg and Cas when he was in the psych hospital. More than a year ago. And it took him a minute to even figure out that Meg was propositioning him.
But we also got Dean being all thrilled about the “Voluptuous Asian Ladie...

So, ever since seeing the promo for 8x17, and then this post, the wheels in my head have been turning at an alarming rate. Just what could “that scene” entail that could be so big and scary for Destiel shippers?
Gather ‘round, my lovelies, and let us explore this together.
First...

Ever since Cas got hir mojo back, ze look is a bit different.
New trench coat is probably what you think first.
But DO YOU KNOW WHAT I NOTICE?
CAS IS WEARING A BUTTON DOWN SHIRT. ONE OR TWO BUTTONS UNDONE ON THE TOP. NO TIE.
I’M JUST GONNA PUT THIS HERE.
So, YEAH.
...